Five Signs That Prove You’re Definitely From Acadiana

When you grow up in Acadiana, certain things we say and do become second nature. Almost like breathing, we might let out a random "Mais La" or a "Come see". I know it's hard to imagine, but people don't do these things in other parts of the country. Below are a handful of things that are pretty definable of an Acadiana upbringing, whether it's Lafayette, Parks or Opelousas.

1) You Avoid Making Left Turns - One of the most difficult things to do while driving in Lafayette is making a left turn. Without even thinking about it, we'll automatically recalculate routes to avoid needing to take a left turn at any point in our journey.

2) You Plan Dinner While Drinking Your Morning Coffee - If you're from anywhere in Acadiana, you're going to do this. If we wake up at 5:30am, we're planning dinner by 5:45am. Part of our morning conversation before we finish our first cup will be "What you wanna do for dinner?"

3) You Wrap Everything In Bacon - We'll wrap just about anything in bacon before we throw it on the pit. Shrimp, jalapeno peppers, green beans you name it...if we can wrap bacon around it, we're going to. I mean, we fry pig fat in pig fat, so there's no limit to how far we might take this bacon thing.

4) You Repeat Words For Emphasis - This might be one of my favorites on the list. You see, it can be either "cold" or "cold cold" outside. The crawfish can be "hot" or "hot hot". A pig can be "fat" or it can be "fat fat". There's a difference, and when you're from Acadiana, you know exactly what these differences are.

5) You've Received Used Pots As Gifts - Seriously, in south Louisiana, getting a set of your parent's or grandparent's pots as gifts is almost as exciting as getting a car. These are no regular pots, these are cast iron family heirlooms, and you're not going to get them until you're deemed ready. Two things are going to happen when you receive these pots. The first will be an entire oral history of the pot from when it was purchased, how many hurricanes it's been through and what things you're going to want to cook in it. The second thing that will happen is a talk about how to take care of these pots. It will start with "Now, listen..."